APES 2013 Requirements for a Lab Write Up
Your lab write up should be in your lab notebook, whenever possible. If not in your lab notebook, your lab should be typed.
•12 pt type
• times new roman font
• double spaced
Some of the required sections will be from the provided lab materials while other section will require use of your textbook and other supplementary materials.
Lab write ups should include these 7 sections: Introduction, Materials, Methods, Data, Analysis, Conclusion and Reflection.
Introduction:
1. Purpose: What is this lab about? Discuss what you are investigating and why (your goals).
2. Background: What prior knowledge is important in understanding the purpose. What do previous studies tell you.
3. What steps did you/your group follow in designing the experiment.
4. Hypothesis: Your statement or prediction about what will happen.
Independent variable, dependent variable, control, constants
Materials and Methods:
1. Materials: what equipment, tools and supply did you/your group use in conducting this experiment.
2. Procedures: detailed step by step list of how you/your group conducted this experiment.
· use drawings to illustrate your work, where appropriate *
· include the data you will collect, how it will be collected, and how it will be analyzed
Data and Analysis:
1. Data: List the data you collected
• Use tables, graphs, or any other charts that may be necessary to organize and present
your data.
2. Analysis: Give an explanation of what you believe your data means and justify your results.
• Answers to any provided questions.
Conclusions and Reflection:
1. Conclusions:
•What was the purpose and hypothesis?
• What observations did you make and what are your findings?
• How do they meet (or not meet) your goals?
• Are the findings what you expected? Explain.
• Is there support or opposition to your findings from the literature?
• Discuss the different strategies you attempted in setting up and carrying out your work (and
how successful they were), your analysis, any unexpected results, errors, possible alternative findings, and explanations.
• Discuss any revisions that you think may be necessary in regard to your methods and findings.
2. Reflections
• What do you think of this experience? Why?
• What did you learn?
• How did this activity help you (or not)?
• What were some of the issues and how did you deal with them?
3. Suggestions for future use of this laboratory exercise?